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The U.S. Government Tried to Stop These Kids’ Lawsuit Over Climate Change. It Didn’t Work

Since 2015, 21 young people aged 8 to 20 have been engaged in Juliana v. the United States, a lawsuit over climate change.

The plaintiffs argue that the federal government has not taken sufficient action to battle catastrophic climate change and that the dire future of the planet infringes on their constitutional right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

They contend that the government has known for decades how carbon dioxide pollution and the greenhouse effect affects the Earth, yet has failed to take action to save future generations from those effects.
In fact, these kids say, the government has actually taken actionable steps to make climate change worse and has “failed to protect essential public trust resources.”

As Earth Guardians — a youth-led environmental group and organizational plaintiff in the lawsuit — states, “We’re holding the federal government accountable for putting our future at risk and refusing to act on climate change.”

The government, under both Obama and Trump, has made multiple attempts to get the lawsuit tossed out.

Juliana v. U.S. was filed during the Obama administration and has carried over into Trump’s tenure. Both administrations have attempted to have the lawsuit dismissed before it reached trial, and unsurprisingly, fossil fuel industries have attempted to join in the effort.